The benefits and soothing therapeutic effects of drinking warm liquids such as broths, teas, cocoas and the like are well known and are particularly desirable for persons in health care situations such as those in rehabilitation settings. Typically, patients undergoing physical rehabilitation or those weakened by a pathological state or the effects of drug therapies are unable to take in adequate quantities of nourishing hot beverages on their own The danger of scalding is significantly greater with these individuals, as it is with children, and close supervision of their mealtime is therefore required.
It has proven to be highly desirable to protect patients and children, while at the same time allowing them to independence to feed themselves as well as to derive the benefits of imbibing hot nutritive beverages. However, a health care setting requires that any device for cooling a patient's broth must have east of manipulation by the patient, disposability or ease of cleaning for reuse and safeguards against contaminating the beverage.
It is known in the art of beverage sipping devices, such as drinking straws, to construct straws from which a flavoring additive may be dispersed into the main body of liquid beverage as the beverage is consumed. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,595 to Guttag discloses a straw having a double walled configuration with an inner wall comprised of a water insoluble material having dispersed therein a water-soluble flavoring. As the main beverage is sucked through the straw, the patent discloses that the water-soluble flavoring would leach out of the polymer and into the beverage.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,867,536 to Mead et al. discloses a flavor-imparting straw using a double-walled configuration in which a flavoring is stored in the compartment formed between the outer and inner walls of the straws. However, neither of the disclosed devices will accomplish any modulation of the temperature of the beverage being consumed.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,288,848 also discloses a beverage drinking straw utilizing a double-walled configuration. Int his instance, the chamber formed by the double-wall provides buoyancy to the straw, thereby preventing it from sinking prematurely to the bottom of a soda bottle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,202 relates to a novelty drinking straw having disposed thereon a chromatogenic liquid crystalline material which is maintained on the outer surface thereof under a film of Mylar or the like.
None of the above references relates to a device intended to modulate the temperature of the beverage product flowing through it.
U.S. Pat. NO. 5,031,831 to Williams relative to a device for cooling a room temperature liquid beverage comprising a pressurized canister having a wound capillary tube passing therethrough. The capillary tube is surrounded by frozen water, ammonium nitrate and water, glycerol, metal spheres and/or a pressurized gas. While this device may cool liquids draw through it, it suffers from numerous disadvantages. The device is complex and therefore expensive to produce and sell. Secondly, if the device should discharge any of the coolant materials, it could seriously injure an unknowing user. Additionally, as only the very ends of the device are pieces of common plastic drinking straws, the bulk of the device must be sterilized and recharged should reuse in a health environment be desirable. Moreover, again with respect to use by the infirm, the device is relatively difficult to use by a weakened person in a rehabilitation setting.